TS govt seeks Rs.100 cr from Centre for incubation hub

Hyderabad: The Telangana State government on Wednesday sought Rs 100-crore assistance from the Centre for development of infrastructure for second phase of the proposed technology incubation centre, T-Hub, coming up here.

Information Technology Minister K Taraka Rama Rao, in a letter to Union Minister of Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad, said the State government was funding the first phase Rs 20 crore of the T-Hub. However, it required funding support for infrastructure development for phase two of the project, which was expected to cost Rs 200 crore.

T-Hub, India's biggest technology incubation centre for start-up and entrepreneurial activities was spread over 80,000 sq ft and is coming at the III-T campus. The first phase was expected to become operational by the year-end, while the second phase will have built-up space of 3,00,000 sq ft. "The construction of the first phase is under way, while land has already been identified for the phase two of the incubator, which will house start-ups, investors, service providers etc," Rao said. Of the total cost for Phase 2, Telangana Government has sought Central Government's assistance of Rs 100 crore for putting necessary infrastructure in place, he said. The State Government is setting up the technology centre with collaborative efforts from the Indian School of Business (ISB), the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad) and NALSAR University of Law besides various other organisations.